Cleaning machine



Dec. 4 1923. 1,476,133

G. L. ALLEN ET AL CLEANING MACHINE Filed May 29. 1922 gmnntow;

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4 Sheets-Sheet 1 ,476,133 G. L. ALLEN ET AL CLEANING MACH INE 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 29, 1922 N G. L. ALLEN ET AL.

CLEANING MACHINE Filed May 29, 1922 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 whi E fitter um;

Dec. 4 1923. 1,476,133

G. L. ALLEN ET AL CLEANING MACHINE lfi1edMay 29. 1922 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 in? T II V 5 1 Geo e J.

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al to'wuug Patented De.4,1e23.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE L. ALLEN AND RICHARD C. THOMPSON, OF SAVANNAH, GEORGIA, ASSIGNOES TO THE ALLEN'ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING COMPANY, A PARTNERSHIP GOMPOSED OF GEORGE L. ALLEN, WARREN BUTLER, AND J'QJ.

VANNAE, GEORGIA.

WEIGLAND, OF SA- CLEANING MACHIN E.

Application filed Kay 29, 1922. Serial No. 564,823.

'To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, GEORGE L. ALLEN and RICHARD C. THOMPSON, citizens of the United States, residing at Savannah, in the county of Chatham and State of Georgia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cleaning Machines, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to new and useful improvements in cleaning machines and has for an object to provide a machine having a brush for first removing spots from cloth, pieces of fabric, garments, etc., and means for injectin any of a desired plurality of cleaning fluids to the cleaning brush; as some spots may be easily removed b one cleaning fluid, although not by another.

Another object of the invention is to provide a machine for cleaning garments or fabrics havin a brush on which a desired fluid may be injected, and to provide further, a dusting brush which is so arranged that when operatin a vacuum is formed to remove the loosene dust from the garment. Also, to provide a centrifugal separator so that the dust on being drawn from the garment or fabric will enter the separator and the particles strike or be thrown against the side thereof and drop to the bottom vfrom which it may be emptied; the clarified air passing upwardly through the center of the separator and liberated into the room. The provision of the dusting brush and its arrangement, together with the arrangement of the centrifugal separator forms the subject matter of a divisional application filed by us on October 2, 1923, and bearing Serial No. 666,089. I v

The invention in its broadest aspects-is similar to the cleaning machine shown and described in the patent to A. L. Hildredth and A. M. McLendon, #1,381,553, patented June 14:, 1921.

In that invention, however, means are not provided for the immediate selection of a number of cleansing fluids to be supplied to the cleansing brush while a fan has to be provided to form the suction for the dusting brush. Also, an exhaust pipe or vent must be provided to lead the dust collected from the room in Which the machine is located.

Still other objects of the invention are to provide a cleansing device which is exceed-' ing simple in construction, easily assembled,

neat in appearance, relatively cheap to manufacture, relatively cheap to operate, and highly eflicient in action. With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in certain new and novel arrangements and combination of arts, as will be hereinafter more fully described and polnted out in the claims.

Referring now to the drawings showing a preferred embodiment of our invention,

Fig.1 is a vertical longitudinal view of our invention taken on line 1-1 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is a plan View.

Fig. 3 is an end elevation looking in the direction of the arrow A of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a transverse sectional View taken on line 4--4 of Fig. 2.

chine.

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view taken on line 66 of Fig. 2, and

Fig. 7 is a detailed sectional view through one of the fluid tanks.

Referring now to the drawings more in detail, there is shown a table comprising the legs 1, the top 2, the shelf 3, and the raised back 4, all of which parts may be made of metal and enameled white or otherwise finished to provide a table of pleasing appearance. Near the left hand end of the table and beneath the top 2 there are provided the small angles 5 to provide shelves on which rests the block 6 to which is secured a motor 7, which is hung by the bolts 8, and a short set screw 9 is shown for moving the block and motor slightly to take up the wear in the belt 10, which belt drives a shaft 11 on which is mounted the dust brush 12.

A switch 13 is shown on the outer edge of the table for starting and stopping the motor 7, which motor may be connected to any electric socket in the room.

The shaft 11 is suitably mounted in bearings 14 and 15 located beneath the top of the table, and at the rear end thereof is the pulley 16, which in turn drives a belt 17, which belt drives the short shaft 18 through the pulley 21 mounted in the bearings 19, also beneath the top of the table on which shaft is located which we term as the spotting brush 20. The pulley 21 is much larger than the pulley 16 to gear the spotting brush down, as, of course, this brush should not travel at the same speed as the motor.

Referring now to the spotting brush 20, and its associated parts,- there shown a hood or pan 22 which partly encirclps the brush and nearly contacts with the brush at its lowermost point, while one of its upper ends extends downwardly and mward y as at 23 to contact with the outer periphery of the brush to prevent an of the fillld from being thrown outwardly y the centrifugal v 31 so that when it is desired to supply the fluid to the spotting brush'20, one of the plungers 29 will be raised so that the an may pass around the same and it is then forced downwardly and the fluid passmg through the capillary hole 31 will be forced down through its pipe 25 to the spottmg brush 20. I

There is an advantage in having the fluid supplying means arran ed in this way as between the intervals of t e operation of lungers 30, the tubes 17 will fill with flui through the capillary holes 31 to the level of the fluid in the tanks and when any of the plungers 30' are raised and forced downwardly the displacement of the sin in the tube will be e ual to' the air dis lace- Y ment in the cylin er 28. There wil be,

7 certaine I Asfar as the specification has prded,

of course, a slight loss of air passing out and tank, the volume of air in the tank varying inversely with the level of the fluid would cause a lar e amount of fluid to be discharged when t a tank was full and only.

a small amount when the tank was nearly empty. 1

As seen in Fig. 7, a small compression spring 28', may be placedunder the plunger 29 so that the plunger will be automatically raised rather than by hand, but this is optionaL- Small card holders -33 are supplied for each plunger so that the name of the fluid in each articular tank may be easily as (I by the operator.

acranaa it will be seen that a spottin brush has been provided to which any-o four desirable 0 caning fluids may be applied, and of course, a greater number of fluid tanks or containers could be added if desired. It

will be understood that the spotting brush 20 will slightly project above the table, the bristles of the brush will impinge against the same, and due to the cleansmg action of the cleansing fluid, 0r fluids, remove the spots from the garments.

Other means might be provided for applying the fluid to the brush, but the means above described has proven very eflicient in service and supplies only a small amount of fluid at each stroke of the plunger which is to be desired.

Referring in a general way to the dusting brush 12, and its associated parts which forms the subject matter of a divisional application filed by us, it will be seen by referrlng to Figs. 2 and 5, in particular, that a rectangular opening 34 is formed in the top of the table in whichfits a small rectangular frame 35, which is slightly elevated as at36, near its rear end, the top portion thereof being substantially in a plane with the 'top of the bristles of the brush 12, heretofore mentioned. This frame is provided across its face with the guard wires 37 so that the garment will be in proper contact with the brush when passed over the same,-and the bristles of the brush may be divided into sections so that a section will be between each of the guard wires 37. i

The hood 38 with end plates 39 for the ends 40 of the core of the brush 12 and the cover plates 41 together with the rear plates 42 and 43 of the hood and the centrifugal separator 44 with its sloping sides 45 and the container for the dust 46, together with the top of the separator 47, form the subject matter of the divisional application.

The operation of the device is exceedingly simple. When desired to clean a garment, themotor 7 will be started, the proper cleansing fluid injected on the spotting brush 20 by operating one of the plungers 29- and. the garment passed over and held in contact with this brush.

It will also-be seen that different forms of cleaning fluid may be applied depending upon the nature of the spots so that results may be obtained quickly which cannot be obtained with any other form of cleansing apparatus of which we are aware.

Many slight changes might be made in the construction and in the details as shown in the drawings without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Having thus described the same, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A cloth cleaning machine comprising a table having a slot in its top a rotary brush mountedbeneath said table and a portion of the same extending through said slot, means for rotating said brush, means secured to the table for holding a plurality of cleaning fluids, means for selectively supplying one of said fluids to said brush and at a point beneath the surface of the table.

2. A cloth cleansing machine comprising a table, a brush rotatably mounted beneath the top of said table and a portion of the brush extending through an opening in the said table, means for rotating the brush, a pan extending around the portion of the brush which is beneath the table, the bottom portion of the pan in contact with the periphery of said brush, and means for applying. a cleansing fluid to said brush.

3. A cloth cleaning machine comprising a table, a brush rotatably mounted beneath the top of said table and a portion of the brush extending through an opening in said.

table, means for rotating the brush, means for holding a plurality of cleansing fluids, means for selectively applying one of said fluids to said brush and means secured to said table and contacting with the periphery of the brush to prevent the cleansing fluid from being thrown off above the surface of said brush.

4. A cloth cleaning machine comprising a table, a brush carried on said table, means for rotating said brush, a pan located beneath said brush having its bottom portion in contact with the periphery of said brush and a portion of saidpannear its upper end bent to form a guard to also contact with said periphery of said brush, a container for cleansing fluid, and means for {)OIClIIIIg fluid from said container to said l'llS an opening therein, a rotary brush mounted beneath the top of said table, and a portion of the brush extending through said opening, means for revolving said brush, a plurality of fluid containing tanks, plunger means associated with each tank, pipes leading from said containers to said brush for supplying the fluid from the tanks to said brush beneath the top of the table when said plungers are operated.

6. A cloth cleansing machine comprising a table, the top of said table provided with an opening therein, a rotary brush mounted beneath the top of said table, and a portion of the brush extending-through said opening, means for revolving said brush, a plurality of fluid containing tanks, plunger means associated with each tank, pipes leading from said containers to said brush for supplying the fluid from the said tanks to said brush when saidplungers are operated, and a pan surrounding the greater portion of said brush and in contact with v the brush at its bottom and near the top to prevent any of the cleaning fluid from being thrown through the opening in the top of the table.

A cloth cleaning machine comprising a table, a brush rotatably mounted between the top of said table'and a portion of said brush extending above the to table, means for rotating said brus selective means for forcing cleansing fluid to said brush comprising a plurality of tanks for holding a plurality of different cleansing fluids, a tube in each of said tanks and provided with a relatively small opening, a

cylinder and. plunger connected with said tube for forcmg a uniform quantity of cleansing fluid in said tube to the said brush.

In testimony whereof we afiix our signatures.

GEORGE L. ALLEN. PRICHARD c. THOMPSON;

of said 

